Why does Hebrews 9:4 claim the two stone tables of the Ten Commandments, Aaron’s miraculous staff, and the pot of manna were in the Ark of the Covenant, when 1 Kings 8:9 says, “There was nothing in the Ark except the two tables of stone which Moses put there at Horeb”? Does this represent a contradiction in Sacred Scripture?
There are four key points that should suffice here to answer.
1. God gave the original design of the Tabernacle (or “Tent of the Testimony”). In the context of designing and building the Ark, God commanded Moses to place (or have Aaron place) a sample of the manna, Aaron’s rod, and the two tables of the Ten Commandments in the Ark. So there is no doubt that all three of these holy relics were in the Ark, at least in the beginning, when it was designed, built, and consecrated.
How do we know that? From Hebrews 9:4. And the word of God is inspired and inerrant. Simple enough.
But the question here concerns those who claim that the Old Testament presents a contrary view from Hebrews 9:4. How do we respond to this? Well, there is no contradiction.
Notice first that in Exodus 25:16, God commands Moses to place “the testimony” or “the tables of the testimony” (31:18) into the Ark, as part and parcel of God’s personal design. In verse 16, God says, “And you shall put into the ark, the testimony which I shall give you.” Testimony can also be translated as covenant inasmuch as the Ten Commandments represent the heart of the covenant between God and Israel.
Thus, it is clear: the Ten Commandments as “written with the finger of God” are revealed to have been in the Ark (see also Exod. 25:21-22). In fact, that is why the Ark is called “the Ark of the Testimony,” or “the Ark of the Covenant.” It is because it contained the two “tables of the testimony,” also referred to simply as “the testimony.”
2. We also clearly see that an “Omer” (almost one gallon) of manna was commanded by God to be placed in the Ark. In Exodus 16:32-34:
And Moses said, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Let an omer of [manna] be kept throughout your generations, that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.’” And Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar, and put an omer of manna in it, and place it before the Lord, to be kept throughout your generations.” As the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron placed it before the testimony, to be kept.
Notice that when God says to place the manna “before the testimony,” that does not mean “in front of,” nor, certainly, “apart from” the two tables of the Ten Commandments. “Before” means in a close, even intimate proximity. Thus, when Moses first tells Aaron to place the manna before the Lord, that would mean in intimate proximity. And then notice that Aaron obeys Moses by placing the manna not just before the Lord, but before the testimony. “Before the Lord” and “before the testimony” indicate proximity. Thus, if the Ten Commandments are “in the Ark”—and we know they were—then the manna would be “in the Ark” as well, before the testimony that was in the Ark. There can be no doubt about this.
3. We also see clearly that Aaron’s miraculous rod, or staff, was in the Ark according to Exodus 17:6-10. The chapter begins just after the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram is quite definitively put down by divine intervention. These rebels were calling into question Aaron’s authority (and therefore Moses’ . . . and therefore God’s!). God crushed their rebellion and killed all involved.
Yet the people of Israel were shockingly still not ready to come on board with God’s plan. They then started accusing Moses of killing their people, as if they were somehow innocent. To say they were still in rebellion mode would be an understatement.
That is when God had all of the heads of the twelve tribes present their staffs (or rods), along with Aaron’s, declaring that the one whose staff miraculously was to bud flowers would be the one God had chosen to be the high priest of God. Well, we all know the story. Aaron’s rod miraculously budded flowers (Num. 17).
Number 17:7 first says the rods of the tribal leaders, along with Aaron’s, were placed before the Lord in the tent of the testimony. If they are to be laid “before the Lord,” that would most likely (though not definitively) refer to the most intimate of places. But because it then says “in the tent of the testimony,” it becomes a little less precise.
The “tent of the testimony,” sometimes called “the tabernacle,” consisted of three parts: the outer court, the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies. Thus, in the tent of the testimony could mean something other than in the Ark, which was in the Holy of Holies. However, the text clarifies things for us when, in verse ten, after the miracle, “the Lord said to Moses, ‘Put back the rod of Aaron before the testimony, to be kept as a sign . . . lest they die.’” That language makes clear that Aaron’s miraculous staff was placed in the Ark of the Covenant along with the pot of manna and the two tables of the Ten Commandments.
4. So now we are left with the question: “Why are the pot of manna and Aaron’s rod not there in 1 Kings 8:9?” Well, Scripture does not give us how it happened that two of the three relics were not there. It just tells us that they were not there. We can only speculate.
My take—and there are many scholars who agree with me on this—is that the other relics were lost. More specifically, the Philistines stole them. But the fact that they could be lost or stolen should not be surprising when we consider that Scripture tells us, in 2 Maccabees 2:7-8, that the entire Ark of the Covenant was lost to the people of God during the time of Jeremiah, and by God’s design. In fact, Jeremiah hid the Ark, and when some among the people of God tried to find the cave he had placed it in, and when
Jeremiah learned of it, he rebuked them and declared: “The place shall be unknown until God gathers his people together again and shows his mercy. And then the Lord will disclose these things, and the glory of the Lord and the cloud will appear.”
And, of course, that time of fulfillment came . . . at the time of our Blessed Lord and our Blessed Lady, the true fulfillment of Ark of the Covenant (see Luke 1:26-45).
But most likely, sometime between the initial consecration of the Ark and the placing of all three relics within it and the revelation that two of the relics were gone at the time of Solomon, they had been lost, stolen, destroyed, or all three. Because “the tent of the testimony” was designed to be moveable and the people of God broke it down, carried it about, and put it back together again over and over again over the centuries, there were many opportunities for these relics to be lost. But my personal opinion is that it may well have happened during the time of David, when the Philistines and “the men of Bethshemes” stole the Ark and kept it for seven months (1 Sam. 4:14-6:21). The two lost relics were never seen again after that time.
The bottom line is this: precisely when Aaron’s rod and the pot of manna were lost to the people of God is not revealed. But three things are certain:
- The fact that they were lost, destroyed, stolen, or all of the above is implied in the texts we examined.
- We know that it happened sometime between the placing of the three holy relics in the Ark and the revelation that two of those relics were no longer present in 1 Kings 8:9.
- There is nothing in the controverted texts of Scripture that even imply a contradiction.